Clifton

Clifton, one mile northeast of here, was the home of Carter Henry Harrison (ca. 1736-1793). The Georgian-style plantation house was built in the mid-18th century. Harrison, a member of the Cumberland County Committee of Safety, wrote the Cumberland Resolutions, which instructed the county's representatives to declare for independence at the Virginia Convention in May 1776. Adopted on 22 April, these were among the earliest such instructions approved by a public body in Virginia. Harrison furnished supplies to American forces during the Revolution. More than 125 enslaved African Americans labored on his property in the 1780s. Harrison is buried in the family cemetery at Clifton.